World and Russian markets of arsenic

Abstract

A review of the current state of the world and Russian markets of arsenic and its compounds is presented, and prospects of the domestic market are shown. The dynamics of the world production of As and its prices for recent years is considered. The need for arsenic and its compounds in the midterm and long-term prospects is evaluated, and developmental tendencies of the markets are analyzed. The review of producers of this metal and As compounds is given. Special attention is paid to the market of special purity arsenic as the initial component for the developing gallium arsenide market; to clarify this question, a short analysis of the modern state of the market of GaAs and GaAs-based devices is given. Modern methods of deep purification of arsenic as well as the situation with arsenic emissions at domestic enterprises for roasting and smelting of nonferrous metal feedstock are considered. The problem of destruction of reserves of lewisite, yperite, and their mixtures in Russia is discussed. Proposals on the use of forming reaction masses as a nonconventional arsenic source are analyzed.